The Federalist
Papers are a series of 85 articles advocating the ratification of the
United States Constitution. Published between October 1787 and August 1788, the
articles were written by Alexander Hamilton , James Madison and John Jay .
Madison is generally credited as the father of the Constitution and became the
fourth President of the United States. Hamilton was an active delegate at the
Constitutional Convention, and became the first Secretary of the Treasury. John
Jay became the first Chief Justice of the United States. George Washington was inaugurated
as the first President of the United States April 1789.
An
Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles A. Beard, 1913, Edited
Excerpts
The Federalist presents the political science of the new
system as conceived by three of the profoundest thinkers of the period,
Hamilton, Madison, and Jay. They are compelled to convince large economic
groups that safety and strength lie in the adoption of the new system. The most
philosophical examination of the foundations of political science is made by
Madison. “The first object of government,” he declares, is the protection of
“the diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property
originate.”
What are the chief causes of these conflicting political
forces with which the government must concern itself? Madison answers “the most
common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal
distributions of property. Those who hold and those who are without property
have formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors and those
who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination.”
Alexander Hamilton: “All communities divide themselves into
the few and the many. The first are the rich and well born, the other the mass
of the people. The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God;
and however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true
in fact. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine
right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in the
government.”
Yes, I actually read the Federalist Papers, an exercise of
self-flagellation. Madison, Hamilton, and Jay produced voluminous articles that
must have kept an army of typesetters employed. The intended audience would be
peers of wealth and education, not the Shays Rebellious types. No doubt these
three men were deep thinkers, writing and pontificating, till the ink ran dry.
And buried in this abundance of enlightenment are key economic doctrines, which
I have painfully excerpted and highlighted for your perusal.
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